Law SchoolLaw Schoolhttp://hdl.handle.net/2262/132016-12-09T15:31:04Z2016-12-09T15:31:04ZCriminal procedure and mental healthWhelan, Dariushttp://hdl.handle.net/2262/782492016-12-06T03:14:27Z2000-01-01T00:00:00ZCriminal procedure and mental health
Whelan, Darius
This thesis is a critical evaluation of criminal procedure and mental health in Ireland, concentrating in particular on fitness to plead, insanity acquittals, transfers from ordinary mental hospitals to the Central Mental Hospital and transfers from prisons to mental hospitals. Throughout the thesis, constitutional and human rights considerations are emphasised. A broadening of the existing definition of fitness to plead is suggested, to cover defendants’ analytic capacity as well as their cognitive abilities. A ‘trial of the facts’ procedure is proposed to ensure that the strength of the prosecution’s case is tested before it is possible to detain a person. However, proposals to allow postponement of the issue of fitness until the prosecution case has ended would conflict with the right to a fair trial. The question of fitness to plead in the District Court needs to be clarified in legislation.
2000-01-01T00:00:00ZPrivate property rights in the Irish ConstitutionWalsh, Rachaelhttp://hdl.handle.net/2262/782422016-12-06T03:11:35Z2011-01-01T00:00:00ZPrivate property rights in the Irish Constitution
Walsh, Rachael
This Thesis analyses the protection of private property rights in the Irish Constitution both critically and constructively. Critically, it examines the results driven nature of Irish constitutional property doctrine through detailed analysis of case-law. Constructively, it extracts the judicial preferences concerning property that are latent in the doctrine and assesses the theoretical arguments concerning the value of private ownership that they reflect in order to better explain the Irish constitutional orientation towards private property rights. The Thesis is the product of extensive textual analysis of primary and secondary sources. I principally studied the Irish Constitution and judgments of the Irish courts. I also considered decisions from the US and the UK, as well as decisions of the European Court of Human Rights and the European Court of Justice. I analysed Irish statutes and secondary legislation where relevant. I also studied secondary literature on the protection of private property and constitutional property rights adjudication from various library collections.
2011-01-01T00:00:00ZThe legal assimilation of same-sex family units in IrelandTobin, Brianhttp://hdl.handle.net/2262/782322016-12-06T03:08:36Z2015-01-01T00:00:00ZThe legal assimilation of same-sex family units in Ireland
Tobin, Brian
This PhD thesis critically examines how Irish law can promote the effective assimilation of same-sex family units into Irish society. Initially, the thesis assesses the potential for marriage equality under Irish law. The major findings in this regard are that the Oireachtas could legislate for marriage equality in the absence of a referendum and because of the synergy between the constitutional and statutory understandings of marriage envisaged by Dunne J in the High Court case of Zappone v Revenue Commissioners [2008] 2 IR 417 such legislation might not be deemed unconstitutional by the courts. As emphasised in chapter one, this course of action was not adopted by the Oireachtas post-Zappone due to either a lack of appreciation of this aspect of the High Court judgement or the sheer political unwillingness to engage with it.
2015-01-01T00:00:00ZChoice in context : a relational perspective on coercion in the Law of Contract and the Law of MarriageRyan, Fergus W.http://hdl.handle.net/2262/781902016-12-02T03:29:46Z2001-01-01T00:00:00ZChoice in context : a relational perspective on coercion in the Law of Contract and the Law of Marriage
Ryan, Fergus W.
The rhetoric of freedom is sometimes too readily accepted. It has infected, in particular, the discourses and doctrines of law, especially in the field of so-called ‘private ordering’. Thus it is regularly considered self-evident in this context that the parties to a contract (whatever form that that contract takes), be free of external coercion or compulsion. The reality is that many factors - physical, social and interpersonal - usually beyond the control of one individual, shape, structure and sometimes even compel individuals to action (or inaction as the case may be). The dominant conceit of contractualism - that the individual be left to order his own destiny - may thus be largely an unrealisable ideal or one that can be achieved in part only. In fact the law generally deals only with a subset of the total incidence of coercion and compulsion. The several doctrines that purport to treat of coercive incidents are generally qualified heavily by requirements of impropriety or illegitimacy that in practice contain and limit legal relief where there is coercion or compulsion. The suggestion that such doctrines be based on the fact of impaired consent alone, however, has proved especially persuasive in the field of contract and seems to have been accepted as the dominant criterion in relation to the validity of marriage in Ireland.
2001-01-01T00:00:00Z